1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to apparatus having spell checking capabilities. More particularly, the invention relates to a spell checker that provides educational spelling assistance to a user.
2. Background of the Related Art
Spell checking programs are commonly incorporated into word processing programs as well as many other programs involving typing words to form a part of a document, spread sheet, or database, etc. Current spell checking programs typically check each word in the document against a spelling dictionary database. If the word does not exist in a spelling dictionary database (i.e., a misspelled word), the spell checking program provides a list of correctly spelled words that may be selected to replace the misspelled word. A user of the spell checking program selects the correct word which replaces the misspelled word and then proceeds to correct the next misspelled word.
Accordingly, each misspelled word is corrected without any additional reinforcement to learn the correct spelling of the misspelled words. Thus, the user does not improve his spelling ability and continues to misspell words, even with repeated corrections to the same word or a similar group of words.
Therefore, there is a need for a spell checker that provides educational spelling assistance to improve a user's ability to spell words correctly.